With housing shortages in some parts of the country, knowing how to look for a home is essential. When the market isn’t in the buyer’s favor, it can be hard to ensure you’re getting the best deal available. It can also feel daunting to tackle the process alone.
That’s what we’re here to help with, though. Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or you’re looking to move to a new area, these house buying tips are sure to have you covered.
Read on for six of the best tips for buying a house.
Table of Contents
1. Be Sure You’re Ready to Commit
Whether it’s a long-term loan, a new city, or the house itself, you need to make sure buying a house is something you’re ready to commit to for the long term before you get started.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
- How long are you staying here?
- Do you have an emergency fund to cover at least three to six months of expenses?
- Do you have a stable source of income?
If the answer to any of those questions is “no,” or you don’t know how long you’re going to be staying in the area, it might be best to hold off on buying a new home.
2. Don’t Skip Out on Preapproval
If you are ready to commit, though, it’s important to get pre-approved for a loan.
Most of the time, the approval process for these loans simply involves a soft credit check, meaning your score won’t be affected by looking, and also submitting documents and other information to verify. A preapproval letter is going to come straight from a lender that tells you how much loan money you qualify for. It’s based on things like your W-2s, bank statements, and also your credit score.
It’s important to know how much you qualify for from the beginning so you can create a budget and avoid overspending.
3. Bigger Doesn’t Mean Better
It’s easy to be drawn to the biggest house on the block, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be the best one available. It’s also going to have a pretty small buyer pool when you look to resell.
Most people aren’t going to need large homes, and they’re not going to be willing to pay twice the amount their neighbors did to live in the same neighborhood. If you pay $500,000 for a home in an area where the others range from $200,000 to $300,000, you’re going to have a limited range for value appreciation.
In the end, you might end up losing out on money you could’ve gained by going with something smaller and capable of gaining more value.
If you’re looking to explore your home options, you can find more here.
4. Property Inspections Are Crucial
When you’re buying a house, it’s important to have the property surveyed so you know where the lines end, and also to have the property itself inspected. This is going to help save you from potential disputes with neighbors, and it’s also going to help ensure you don’t overpay on your property taxes.
Having a home inspection done is going to tell you about specific problems with your potential home. You’ll be able to see the results and then work with the seller to fix them. Ideally, the seller will have disclosed everything, but the inspection is only going to make sure that everything gets taken care of.
You also want to make sure your money deposit letter comes with a home inspection contingency. This is going to keep your deposit safe in the event that too many repairs are needed and you’d like to back out of buying the home.
5. How’s the Neighborhood?
It’s important to pretty much stalk any neighborhood you’re looking to move into. Getting the lay of the land during all times of the day is going to help you make sure you actually like the area.
A lot of homebuyers end up regretting their homebuying decision because they don’t like the neighborhood. To make sure you’re comfortable, drive around at any time of the day, and try your daily commute from the house. If it’s too far or the traffic is horrible, then at least you know (how you proceed is going to be up to you).
It’s important to also track down the nearest grocery store, dog park, or the regular park for the kids, the school system (this can affect your home’s value), and anything else that might matter to you. That means restaurants, nightlife, the mall, department stores, or other amenities.
6. Negotiate With the Seller
Once you’ve found a home in a neighborhood you love, you can make an offer. When you’re writing up your offer, though, you should also attempt to negotiate with the home seller. When it comes to things like repairs and replacements, this is a crucial step.
You can either ask them to cover the repairs or to lower the asking price enough to allow you to make the necessary repairs and/or replacements.
The power you have here is going to ultimately depend on the market, though. It’s tougher when there are more buyers, but working with a real estate agent can help make navigation a lot easier.
Remember These House Buying Tips
Now that we’ve gone over the basics, it’s time for you to put these house buying tips into practice. Whether this is your first time going through the process or your fifth, there is always something new to learn, and these tips are meant to help you do exactly that. Take a bit of time beforehand to plan and prep everything you need to make sure the process of buying a house goes smoothly from the beginning and you’ll be in your new home in no time.
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